Wacom Bamboo Capture Pen Tablet (CTH470)

by Wacom

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 6.9 x 0.4 inches ; 14.9 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B005HGBEZ2
• Item model number: CTH470
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #3 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Accessories > Keyboards, Mice & Input Devices > Graphics Tablets
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 27, 2011

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Bamboo Capture pen and touch tablet helps you turn ordinary photos into extraordinary ones. Compatible with a wide variety of photo software applications, and with a suite of software included in the box, Bamboo Capture is an ideal tool for editing, perfecting, and having fun with your digital images.

• Ideal for editing and having fun with photos
• Easily retouch, edit, and enhance your digital images
• Precision pen input with 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity
• Multi-Touch gestures let you get hands-on with your projects
• Software suite included

Precision input and control with 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity. View larger.

Large, textured work surface provides a pen-on-paper feel. View larger.

Edit, perfect, and have fun with your digital images. View larger.

Enhance Digital Images While Adding Your Personal Style

Turn digital images into special mementos, create the quality photos you have always wanted, and let your creativity shine through. You can make your portraits come alive, remove distracting background elements and unwanted details, soften skin tones, and create your own collages and compositions.

Bamboo lets you express yourself with over 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity. The pen gives you precision input and control, while the textured work surface gives you a familiar pen-on-paper feel.

Engage Your Creativity with Multi-Touch Input

Bamboo Capture allows you to get hands-on with your photos by using Multi-Touch gestures to scroll, zoom, rotate, or flip through documents and photos. The Multi-Touch input places everything at your fingertips, making working with images both easy and intuitive.

For added convenience, four programmable ExpressKeys allow you to personalize your tablet and create effective shortcuts as you work.

Powerful Software Included for Your Photo Editing Needs

A suite of full version creative software is included in the box: Adobe Photoshop Elements, a photo-editing software for retouching and having fun with photos; Nik Color Efex Pro WE3, which features simple filters for color enhancement and special effects; and Autodesk SketchBook Express, a sketching app for visualizing your ideas, light sketching, and doodling. You even have access to a free 8- by 8-inch photobook from Shutterfly.

Comfortable, Versatile Design

Easy and comfortable to use, Bamboo Capture features an ergonomic, battery-free pen with two programmable switches and an attached penholder. The reversible tablet works equally well for right- or left-handed users. It measures 0.4 by 10.9 by 6.9 inches (H x W x D).

Compatibility and Warranty Information

Requiring a standard USB port for Mac and PC, Bamboo Connect is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, or Windows XP SP3, and with Mac OSX 10.5 and above. Optional Wireless connection.

Bamboo Capture is backed by a one-year warranty.

What's in the Box

Bamboo tablet and pen; Quick start guide; Bamboo installation CD (with driver software, Bamboo dock, online user's manual, and interactive tutorial); Software DVD (Adobe Photoshop Elements, AutoDesk SketchBook Express and Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 WE3; offer for a free 8- by 8-inch photo book from Shutterfly; free offer for an online retail store from Café Press.

Wacom Tablets
Name	CONNECT	CAPTURE	CREATE	Intuos4
Ideal For	Visual Communication Markup | Sketch | Share	Photo Editing Photo Edit | Sketch	Art & Photo Projects Paint | Photo Edit | Craft | Create	Professionals & Enthusiasts Design | Photography | Illustration
Features	Pen input 1,024 pressure levels	Pen input 1,024 pressure levels Multi-Touch input Four programmable ExpressKeys Wireless compatible	Pen input 1,024 pressure levels Multi-Touch input Four programmable ExpressKeys Wireless compatible 2x working space	Pen and Touch Ring input 2,048 pressure levels Pen tilt sensitivity (+/-60 degrees) S, M, L, XL Sizes Six - eight programmable ExpressKeys Wireless compatible (Medium Only)
Included Software	Autodesk Sketchbook Express Evernote	Adobe Photoshop Elements Nik Color Efex Pro WE3 Autodesk Sketchbook Express Evernote	Corel Painter Essentials Adobe Photoshop Elements Nik Color Efex Pro WE3 Autodesk Sketchbook Express Evernote	Choose to download two applications: Adobe Photoshop Elements Autodesk Sketchbook Express Corel Painter Essentials

Product Description

Bamboo Capture is a small format pen and touch tablet specifically designed for the digital photo enthusiast. The pressure sensitive pen gives you precise control for your digital photo editing creativity. Four ExpressKeys give you quick shortcuts to your most frequently used commands. Included in the box is a full version of Photoshop Elements and Nik Color Filters to help you get started quickly. Use the pen combined with Multi-finger touch gestures to work efficiently and with precise control.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the best tablet yet, but not flawless, October 12, 2011

By 

neoREgen (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wacom Bamboo Capture Pen Tablet (CTH470) (Personal Computers)

The hardware looks nicer than it does on the box (the box is darker and more muted than the product), but not quite the same coloration as is on Amazon's site or Wacom's site. In the online pictures it looks as if the buttons on the tablet are light grey/silverish, but they're definitively black in real life. The tablet's color online appears quite white, especially on the drawing surface, but it's grey. It looks like it'll blend in perfectly next to a Macbook Pro or Macbook Air. It's rather elegant.

The four buttons are interestingly not flat. Those little flavor indents in the picture are actual indents. Its a nice design touch, and actually kind of begs you to touch it more.

I was concerned about the newer "paperlike" feel that Wacom has updated all of its products to have, but it feels good. I actually liked the smooth plastic textureless gliding of my last tablet, and still might a little bit more, but I can already tell that this tablet's texture is entirely decent and I'll adapt to it rather painlessly.
It feels good on the fingers. Might not be as smooth as Apple's glasslike surfaces, but it's analogous to the trackpads Apple used before switching to glass.
Everything is responsive. The rotate feature can get a little weird with the pinch/zoom feature, not really knowing which one to apply, so I turned the rotate feature off in preferences. Oh- preferences for touch motions can't be configured in an "I want this to do X" sort of way. They have their intrinsic attributes and can only be toggled on and off.

It does a really good job at distinguishing between what I intend to be an input with my fingers or my pen. So if I lay my hand on it to use the pen- no problem, it gets it. You don't have to worry about toggling the finger-touch on and off.

Oh, by the way- there is approximately an inch's worth of margin on the top, right, and bottom of the usable tablet area. It appears to be quite a large surface, but a decent portion of that does nothing. I'm just eyeing it, but it looks like 6" x 4" worth of usable space, which doesn't sound like much to someone that hasn't used one, but I find to be a quite preferable size. I'd actually rather use a smaller tablet than larger. It's just a preference on how much you like to move as you draw- large sweeping strokes of the arm, or smaller subtler strokes of the wrist.

You might be surprised (as I was) to realize the pen doesn't have an eraser (as my previous, lesser Wacom tablet did).
I'm pretty sure you can't replace the pen with a better one as the driver software doesn't have any indication of the pen having an eraser end.
Honestly, not that big of a dilemma to me. You can program one of your six buttons (4 on the tablet, 2 on the pen) to switch to eraser tool if you want it anyway.

Four months in, my tablet stopped accepting input correctly and I contacted Wacom. The interaction with the customer service representative went very smoothly- no stupid questions asked (if you've ever talked to AT&T, you know what I mean). He sent me a pen immediately. (I did have to send him a copy of my receipt, via email- so hold on to those.) Three days later, it arrived and it works flawlessly. Pretty sure I have to send my old pen back on my dime, though. Oh, well. I'm still very pleased it wasn't the tablet itself that stopped working correctly.

-

When this tablet first came out, the driver software was a big issue for Lion compatibility. It has since (mostly) been fixed. The one extremely glaring flaw that still exists has to do with two finger scrolling. Wacom gives you two options: Natural and Standard. Standard is what is default on all Macs prior to OS X Lion- you move your fingers up, the page goes up. Move them left, it goes left.
Natural is, I presume, supposed to be what OS X Lion has as default scrolling functionality- similar to the iPad. You move your fingers up, the page goes down. Move them right, the page goes left. It's supposed to replicate dragging the page with your finger itself. Unfortunately, Wacom got it wrong in a really weird way - the left and right scrolling is identical to Standard mode. So you move your fingers up to scroll down, and left to scroll... left. Inversion-fail.

The four-finger swipe between spaces also exists in the preference pane, but doesn't work at all for me. Pity.

I'm sure they'll get around to fixing these oversights at some point. Ultimately though, the touch functionality that does exist makes this the most convenient line of Wacom tablets to use by far. Weighing this tablet with the current pro tablet - Intuos 4, I would probably choose this one for 9/10 tasks. Concept art and high quality painting or sketching would be the only project I'd prefer an Intuos 4 on at this point in time, due to the pen tilt functionality and extra pressure sensitivity.

The following issues with the driver software were fixed on Jan. 3rd, 2012. Check out Wacom's page to update your driver, and be pleased with the fact that your tablet is now very similar to an Apple Magic Trackpad, except with slightly less responsiveness and pen control:

a) Pinch/zoom had you pinching to make something bigger (while it oddly shows the zoom out magnifying glass) and vis versa.
b) The three-finger forward and back gestures were swapped, so Back is swipe right instead of left.
c) The four-finger gestures to show the desktop and to show Mission Control didn't work.
d) The left/right four-finger gesture didn't switch Spaces/fullscreen applications. Instead it brought up the Command + Tab application switcher panel.
---

Wacom has only allowed the keys and pen buttons to be configured Globally, meaning you cannot create specific key commands per application.
Now, I had a really worn out (probably ten-year-old) Wacom tablet before this one that was smaller, had no buttons on it, and wasn't even a line that Wacom currently manufactures products in a name of anymore, and it had this functionality in its drivers. It can be done, and it can be done reasonably easily.
My theory?
They don't want to give you that extra ease of use because they want to provide a (faux) distinction between their "consumer" and their "pro" lineup.

Boo for withholding functionality on the software side that the hardware is entirely capable of.

The button-mapping, by the way, can make your workflow considerably faster. It's a pity the drivers force you to reprogram your hot keys every time you want to switch applications.

-

The included CD stated on its packaging that it came with Corel Painter Essentials. It doesn't. It doesn't state that it does on the outside packaging or on any of the websites I've seen. It did get my hopes up for a second seeing that my disc claimed it did though. :P
And for some reason Autodesk SketchBook wouldn't install on my system. Don't know why.

-

Altogether- I like it, I'd recommend it, and it's got more bells and whistles than the last tablet I had. It remains to be seen how the tablet itself will hold up over the years. Due to the precedence of quality set by Wacom in the past, I would have assumed nothing other than rugged durability, but with my pen giving out after only 4 months, I'm a little more hesitant.

If you've never owned a tablet before, trust me. Tablets are amazing. They'll change the way you use your computer forever- for the better.
Whether to go with a Bamboo Capture or an Intuos 4 (which has a better, likely more durable pen)... that's where I'm on the fence.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding starter tablet+solution for BEST functioning on Windows Vista/7! MAKE SURE TO READ!, October 31, 2011

By 

San-Alva "Always go with the best- investigat... (Lares, PR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wacom Bamboo Capture Pen Tablet (CTH470) (Personal Computers)

The solution for skipping lines, input delay and so on is in the bottom of this review.

Bought this tablet after spending over 4 years with a Genius G-Pen that, although not the best out there, certainly wasn't the worst. Plus, it was about time to upgrade to a true tablet like Wacom, so I went and got this one.

First off, the build quality on this thing is simply superb. The tablet feels rugged and rough, and everything was solid and working right off the bat... sort of.

The tablet deserves a 5, it really does. But it sadly loses it on account of lack of instruction on setting it up properly so it worked, as well as lack of troubleshooting support on the matter. I followed the instructions: drivers first, connect tablet later. I tried to use it, but the strokes were slow and skipped: I started to draw lines at one point, but then the "dot" would appear someplace else like 3 seconds later.

So overall, I applied the solution typed below and now the tablet works wonders. It works PERFECTLY. :3

In the end, I VERY STRONGLY RECOMMEND this option. Besides, free programs like Photoshop Elements. How can you NOT go wrong?

I hope my solution helps you, as well as this review.

***SOLUTION***

So I took to Google. After doing much googling, I found the solution. It's actually very simple. Steps below are for Windows 7 Home Edition, may slightly vary for other editions. Admin mode/run as administrator recommended:

1) Control Panel
2) Programs and Features
3) Turn Windows Features on or off
4) Look up Tablet PC Components, and remove the checkmark.
5) Choose OK, and restart the machine.
6) Once restarted, try the tablet again with fast strokes, especially on pressure-sensitive programs like SAI or Photoshop/Photoshop Elements.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice tool for graphics work, September 23, 2011

By 

G. BARTO (Los Gatos, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wacom Bamboo Capture Pen Tablet (CTH470) (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

Fifteen minutes after opening the box, I had the tablet running - installation was a snap. And fifteen minutes later, I was starting to get the hang of it. The trickiest element is getting used to looking at the screen, not where you're writing. But once youve got that, the pressure sensitive nib and excellent screen to tablet coorelation make things fairly easy.

I have been using Gimp and Blender, rather than the included software. I had been concerned that this would be an issue. I haven't yet worked out how to replicate Blender's special mousing commands, but I found this a lot easier to use with the Gimp photo editor than a mouse and was impressed with how easily you can outline, trace and do freehand work. I would be wary of using this as a mouse replacement - I'm keeping my mouse for the moment - but for whenI'm drawing and touching up photos, Wacom seems to have a pretty nice and inexpensive tool here.